Wednesday, 14 April 2010

It may not be exactly the same type of hole, but I believe the title is quite fitting for the situation that Marek currently finds himself in. But before I begin, let me share a little information about the mysterious Amarrian known as Ebon, Marek Ebon.

(Author’s note: as much as I would often love to drift into ‘in character’ commentary, and may do so in future, the majority of my posts will be strictly ‘out of character’ unless stated otherwise. I’ll most likely mark these with an ‘IC’ tag or something similar. If my writing style does drift between the two into a somewhat ‘grey’ area then I apologise, and hope it isn’t too off-putting. I’m always open to constructive criticism in the comments section, so please feel free!)

As a new player to EVE (prior to all that ‘New Player Experience’ jazz), I found the character selection a little confounding (heh, can you guess it’s my favourite word?). So Marek was a mish-mash of things that I thought were cool in EVE, things that I thought were cool from a bit of RP that I used to do in WoW and things that I felt would be cool if I got into the RP side of EVE, which I haven’t done as of yet. Also, at the time I was particularly drawn to the look of the Amarr ships.

Marek was created with that jumble of ideas in mind and flitted hither and thither between training for different things as I found my way in New Eden. He underwent many periods of inactivity whilst other characters took centre stage, but was also my go-to guy for a lot of my pondering moments when I thought ‘hmm, that’d be good to try… I’ll go get Marek’.

So, when the opportunity to enter the corp wormhole surfaced (finally a high-sec entrance that isn’t 20 jumps away!), Marek was naturally my first choice. So without wishing to rip-off a popular story that later became a popular film too much, there is a certain sense that I’ve been flung down the rabbit hole and now everything is… different.

For a start, our wormhole POS is actually the first one I’ve ever seen, let alone the first one that I’ve had to live out of on a semi-permanent basis. I’ve already started to miss the little things about station life, but the feeling of having that high-sec exit despawn was both peculiar and rather exciting. I’m making the most of Marek’s trip to Wonderland though and have been familiarising myself with wormhole life - scanning sites and exits, hitting the directional scan rather excessively, and finding a new-found appreciation for the Covert Ops Cloaking Device II.

Last night I fitted up a sturdy Harbinger and took on some Sleepers with a corp mate. It was certainly an experience, I can tell you. The Harbinger’s tank was impressive in the first instance, but soon became wholly inadequate, and my fellow pilot and I engaged in a tag-team sort of system to take the heat off. Eventually after a couple of hours I hopped back to the POS and fitted for some remote repair – this allowed my corp mate’s tank to hold out long enough for him (my DPS was severely lacking) to finish off the rats. Once they’d been dispatched, it was simply a question of the salvaging and the hacking, which I bravely stood by and watched…

It’s been a good first couple of days in the wormhole – I know exactly what skills I need to train now, so I’ll be looking at getting those within the next week, and then it’ll be a trip out to Empire space with a shopping list as long as this blog post to make sure that I’m fully prepared.

I just hope we don’t have any odd visitors wishing to involve me in an oddly skewed, sci-fi version of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Although it does raise the question of what the EVE answer to ‘Why is a raven like a writing desk?’ would be – anyone know if the Caldari Navy are keen authors?

Friday, 9 April 2010

Well my last post was a little sparse in terms of the above mentioned and often appreciated detail, so hopefully this one will tip the scales back in the favour of you information lovers out there!

So, last time I mentioned that I’d made the move to a new corporation. But, in the interest of detail, let me tell you a little about my old corporation, which I was rather fond of. The short-lived Jucucu-Wix Inc. [JUCU] was home to myself and a good friend of mine, and served as our own little haven away from the hustle and bustle of the larger corporations. We ran some missions, we mined some ore and we had a good laugh. It was all fun, but a two-man corporation can become a little lonely, especially when one of you is out-of-game for a while or has other commitments. And this seemed to be the case for us. I was struggling to find the motivation to do things. I’m very much a team player, and I was seriously lacking a team.

In one of my regular ‘argh, there are 250 unread posts in Google Reader that I need to get through’ moments, I stumbled across this post over at Carebear in disguise. Intrigued, I resolved to get in touch in-game and see if we had similar goals. A few short chats later and the TransMiners [TM-50] corporation ticker was proudly displayed next to my jet cans as I filled them with ore. The corp is just what I’ve been looking for, really - small enough to retain that sense of community and team work, but with enough direction to give me a goal to work towards and give me a reason to log in.

Of course, I’m still settling in and finding my feet in my new surroundings, and my own play time has taken a hit recently with some awkward happenings outside of New Eden, but I do think I’m going to like it here. If you think you might be interested, I'd encourage you to read the post I linked to above, and get in touch to have a chat!

On a sentimental note, the [JUCU] banner still flies (albeit limply), with my friend choosing to remain in the corporation for now. And I have a rarely-used alt taking up residence there too, that’s when he’s not sitting in an Atron in-system with Maurice making sure that all of Mr. McPhee’s leadership and yield-boosting skills are being utilised to the full.

That's enough detail for now - I hope any of you who are reading this out there have been pleased with my attempt – hopefully you’ll see lots of interesting posts (packed with detail, naturally) from my new home in TransMiners now that I’m fully functional in EVE again.

Thursday, 25 March 2010

Well, it's been a busy week in and out of game for me.

Out of game I've had a few things going on and haven't really had too much time to log in, but when I have been around I've mainly been working on getting myself set up with a new corporation. When I started the blog a few weeks back I was in a small 2-man corporation made up of me and a friend of mine. We were enjoying pottering around in a quiet corner of Gallente space for a while, but I was struggling without having anything real to work towards.

So I made the decision to move to a new corporation. I'll follow up with another post concerning details and such when I'm a little more settled in the new place, but it certainly feels a little more active. It's still a small group, which I like, but I think there'll be more room to grow and hopefully achieve some more goals.

Anyway, just a very short update. Hopefully there'll be more to come when I have more time in game and start joining in with some corporation activities.

Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Welcome to the sixteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

The third Blog Banter of 2010 comes to us from ChainTrap of the Into the unknown with gun and camera EVE Blog. He asks us: “Eve University turns six years old on March 15th; six years spent helping the new pilots of New Eden gain experience and understanding in a supportive environment. Eve is clearly a complicated game, with a ton to learn, so much that you never stop learning. So, the question is; What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out? Or what have you learned in the interim that you’d like to share with the wider Eve community?”

My first attempt at this Blog Banter business, and the topic seems quite fitting, given my recent return to EVE and the new approach that I'm adopting (or trying to, at least!).

In the good old days, I mostly sat in station, spinning my ships. The corp is running a mining op? I'll sit in station. The corp is running some missions to get standings up? Yeah, I think I'll sit in the station. Wait, we're moving to null-sec? Okay, I'll... sit in the station. The corp is having great fun in null-sec? Yeah, well these Level 1 missions are really important. And now I'm going to sit in the station.

I think you get the idea. Basically, I wanted to do all those things, but I was worried that I was too much of a noob, didn't know enough or didn't have the skills to contribute. So I ended up doing only what I was comfortable doing, watching all the new recruits with much younger characters than mine hop into a Rifter and head to null-sec to join the fun. Eventually the game got stale for me and naturally, I quit. Why didn't I just get involved?

What did I have to lose? A bit of ISK, perhaps a bit of pride?
What did I actually lose? A whole load of time, and I missed out on a whole load of fun.

So, fast-forward to the present day, and I'm attempting to put that approach behind me. This game is there to be played, and there are a number of ways to play it. But to do any of them well, you have to get involved. Join a corp, ask stupid questions, get blown up, get podded, lose some ISK. have some fun, have some banter and know that you're getting the most out of this awesome game. I fully intend to learn from my mistakes above, and hope to get out there and enjoy things a little more.

So, new players out there that might be sitting in station when an opportunity arises, ask yourself... what have I got to lose?

Fly safe folks, and when you pod me after blowing up my laser-fitted, hull-tanking Dominix, give me a 'GF!' in local whilst I wake up in a station with a warm, fuzzy feeling that at least I tried.

Friday, 12 March 2010

My new net connection was finally hooked up this week, so I managed to get some decent time online with a stable connection, rather than a friend's less-than-reliable WiFi. I felt that missions were a bit of a risk with all the lag and disconnects that came with that connection, so I spent most of my time mining instead. However, that's all changed now that I'm up and running properly again.

I decided to celebrate by doing my first level 4 mission in about a month. So out came Carmelius and Marek, the mission-running duo. Carmelius in his Dominix and Marek supporting in a Hurricane. I was a little rusty on the combat side of things (I know they're only NPCs but hey, I'm slow) but it didn't take me too long to get back into some sort of rhythm. Carmelius warps in, grabs the aggro and then sets the drones to work. Marek joins him shortly afterwards and sets his own drones to work, whilst tearing everything else apart with his autocannons. Once they're done, they both jump into their dedicated salvage Destroyers and salvage and loot quick-time before the ninjas arrive.

I managed to work my way through the series of 'In the midst of deadspace' on Wednesday, and whilst there were no bounties available (I was shooting Caldari and Amarr ships), the loot and salvage added up to a nice pile of ISK. The only problem is now decided what I'm actually going to use the ISK for!

And therein lies my current problem. Which direction to take in the game? I can run level 4 missions without any trouble now (unless I get complacent) so that's a good money-maker, but what's the use in being able to make cash if you have no reason to spend it? I think I need more of a focus, maybe:

Manufacturing?

Wormhole living?

Trading?

PvP?

Not quite sure which path to take yet. I guess I'll meander around for a little while longer until I decide!

Saturday, 6 March 2010

So with Marek’s mining barge skills advanced enough for him to hop into a Retriever, I decided it was time he joined Maurice on a mini mining op. I’m not sure two miners can really justify the title of an op, but it’s about the most I have at my disposal right now.

I got a little paranoid about my extensive jet-canning after reading Mick Flaherty’s ‘How old is old enough to know?’ post over at Life in the Hole, and decided that Carmelius could take a break from studying Drone Interfacing V and hop in his Iteron III to come and help too. It’s a quiet system, but with two miners I stood to lose a lot more to a pirate than I did with one.

So we got to chewing through some rocks. Marek’s mining ability isn’t great, and it made me think back to the early days of Maurice’s mining attempts. Thankfully Maurice can bring in a lot more ore, so we were able to get through our little section of the asteroid belt in just over an hour. We even had a fleeting appearance from my corpmate mining in his Exqueror before he moves onto a barge in the next few days. Didn’t spot another capsuleer for the entire night, so the cans would have been safe. But I guess it pays to get into good habits early on.

Perhaps not the most thrilling of nights in New Eden, but helped me to get to grips with running three accounts at once and learning (or re-learning) a few aspects of the game that had drifted from my mind over periods of inactivity. Hopefully with a few more of these ops the corp can build up a nice stack of minerals or ISK in preparation for whatever we decide to do once we’re properly on our feet in EVE again.

Wednesday, 3 March 2010

After becoming severely addicted to many of the fantastic EVE Online blogs out there, I figured it might be a good idea to start my own. Just reading about other players' experiences in the game adds huge value to EVE for me, so hopefully one day people might read of my own humble adventures and gain some sort of enjoyment.

So, a little about me then. I've been playing EVE on and off for about two years, but that really only equates to a few months of active play time, what with starting, quitting, real life issues, starting again, internet issues, quitting.. I'm sure you know the drill. So here I am again, consciousness transferred into two (occasionally three) separate pods:

Maurice McPhee - a miner and industrialist hovering around 8m SP at this point in time. Rarely out of an industrial ship unless he's grinding level one missions looking for the elusive 'Break Their Will'...

Carmelius Hove - a mission runner, currently doing his best to tear apart Serpentis ships in his work for the Gallente Federation.

Marek Ebon - the very definition of a support character. Generally helps out the above two with whatever they might need, whether it's mining support for Maurice or some extra fire power if Carmelius gets into a sticky situation.

I'll be focusing mainly on these characters, and the game in general, for this blog, whilst at the same time trying to figure out what path I'd like to tread in New Eden.

About Me

Finding my own little way in New Eden, or attempting to, at least. Here I'll catalogue a bunch of thoughts, feelings and whatever else I get up to.
It might be interesting to some people, it might not be interesting to anyone, but here goes!